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Friday, December 23, 2016

P.J. Lambrecht (aka P.J. Tracy): R.I.P.

Patricia “P.J.” Lambrecht, co-author with her daughter Traci Lambrecht, of seven best-selling thrillers
featuring the St. Paul Monkeewrench gang, died Wednesday on her own
terms after entertaining her oldest friends. She was 70.

Lambrecht, who died in the home north of Stillwater she shared with her
husband, Ted Platz, had struggled with health problems for several years
and was in and out of the hospital since early November when she took a
bad fall, according to her daughter. She asked to go home after ending
her drug regimen.“She had an amazing first week when she was home,” Traci
said of her petite, lively mother. “We decorated the tree, wrapped
presents, shared memories. Death is never beautiful, but hers was as
good as it can get. She went out gracefully like the extraordinary woman
she was. She was sitting on her favorite sofa with her kitty at her
side and Ted and I holding her hands.”

The popular Monkeewrench series, which the women wrote as P.J.Tracy,
features a colorful group of computer geniuses who work in an old
mansion on Summit Avenue. Their most recent adventure, “The Sixth Idea,”
published in August, was inspired by secrets from P.J.’s personal life.
The story centers on the murders of men who secretly worked on
developing the hydrogen bomb, one of whom was P.J.’s father, Don Hepler.